Aquadopp on wave directional buoy

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Aquadopp profiler mounted on wave directional buoy

Aquadopp on wave directional buoy

A TRIAXYS™ Directional Wave Buoy was fitted with a Nortek Aquadopp™ 600 KHz Current Profiler in a downward looking configuration as shown above. From July 14 to August 16, 2004 the TRIAXYS™ Buoy was deployed in the Pacific Ocean off the west coast of Vancouver Island near Ucluelet, B.C., Canada at 48° 55.50’ North Latitude by 125° 34.13 ‘ West Longitude.

Nearby at 48° 55.52’ North Latitude by 125° 34.17 ‘ West Longitude a bottom mooring, consisting of an upward looking Nortek Aquadopp™ 600KHz Current Profiler and an upward looking RDI Workhorse Sentinel 300KHz ADCP™ was deployed. The Nortek and RDI Instruments were spaced 100m from each other, with the instruments moored at 45m depths.

The location of the trial was selected to determine if there was any detectable difference in measuring vertical profile currents with an Acoustic Current Profiler integrated into a moored surface buoy (slack line mooring) versus a static bottom mounted mooring, under a range of wave climate regimes. The location was on the western margin of the Pacific Ocean and provided both swell and chop conditions during the trial period.

Post recovery data analysis compared both bin averaged depths (10-15m and 20-25m) with no tidal correction and a set of corrected bin alignments for
tidal height effects from which direct comparison of data was completed. The TRIAXYS™ mounted ACP data agreed with the bottom mounted units typically to within 4-5 cm/s for velocity and to within 3-5 degrees for direction for depths down to 30m. For the trial period, maximum
wave heights to 2.5m were measured, with no significant effect on ACP measurements. The full report can be found here (PDF format).

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